Price's National Teapots, Stoke on Trent. September 2019

[Ferox]

I never became aware of this place until the latter half of 2019. From the pics I was seeing it appeared worth a look. Quite a bit still to see I thought with some cool decay and nature egress in parts. Certainly enough small things left about to give you an idea of its past product. It all added up to being nicely photogenic. Really wanted to see the Bulldog Bobby stickers also. A real blast from the past from my childhood. A relaxed, enjoyable and uninterrupted mooch. Visited with Paul.

Price's National Teapots, also known as Top Bridge Works. This grade II listed building has been occupied by Price Brothers since the 1890s, becoming Price & Kensington from 1962. Along with the Spode factory, the Top Bridge Works is the earliest surviving example of a fire proof pottery works. The two storey range with rear yards and bottle ovens (only one remains) has been much modified over time and like many pottery factories it backs onto the Trent and Mersey Canal.







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Thanks For Looking

Price's National Teapots | Flickr

 

[Foxylady]

I love Stoke-on-Trent pot banks and that's one I haven't seen before. A fabulous site with lots to see. Lovely photos.

 

[Ferox]

Thank You. Defo worth a look if your over that way

 

[Hayman]

Seeing the Rediffusion loudspeaker, I wonder if Stoke on Trent had this early form of cable TV and radio. In this case, music etc replayed throughout the factory. Rediffusion – it meant rebroadcasting – established wired networks in many towns and cities, often where the reception from the local transmitter was weak. Eastbourne was one such place.

My parents’ hotel had Rediffusion sockets – with seven pairs of holes for the 14 pin plug – in most of the rooms. Either a TV set or a loudspeaker was plugged into a socket, and the desired station selected. The system carried both TV stations and BBC radio stations. With Rediffusion not using all seven pairs of wires for rebroadcasting, it was possible to employ a spare pair for internal use, such as an intercom; or connecting up a tape recorder in one room and playing the output in another, which I did.

I did not try it, but it might have been possible to use the same spare pair of wires to communicate between different buildings – and set up one’s own ‘pirate’ radio station! Radio Eastbourne?

 

[Foxylady]

Seeing the Rediffusion loudspeaker, I wonder if Stoke on Trent had this early form of cable TV and radio. In this case, music etc replayed throughout the factory.

Interestingly, it was the well-known designer Clarice Cliff and the boss of Newport Pottery, Colley Shorter - in Stoke-on-Trent - that were the first to come up with the idea of installing radio for the girls in the workshop to listen to in 1931. Said to increase productivity by eliminating some of the chatter, the idea gradually spread to other factories throughout Britain. Amazing, eh!

 

[Hayman]

Interestingly, it was the well-known designer Clarice Cliff and the boss of Newport Pottery, Colley Shorter - in Stoke-on-Trent - that were the first to come up with the idea of installing radio for the girls in the workshop to listen to in 1931. Said to increase productivity by eliminating some of the chatter, the idea gradually spread to other factories throughout Britain. Amazing, eh!

Don't forget programmes such as "Workers' Playtime!" at lunch/dinner time on the BBC's Light Programme, and "Music While You Work" mid afternoon. At my parents' Eastbourne hotel, we had a continuous-loop taped music player, for background music in the dining room. The tape was in a double-deck cassette, and ran for four hours before the same tune came around again. 1970s Muzak in the UK! And in the 1950s and 1960s music was played over the train announcement loudspeakers at Waterloo station; crisp martial-type music in the morning when people were arriving for work, more gentle music when they were going home at the end of the day and in the evening.

 

[Ferox]

Thank you both for the very interesting information @Hayman and @Foxylady.
I never really liked listening to the radio when I worked in an environment where it used to happen.
Not into chart music at all so it was a chore for me. Never settle for less them metal

 

[Hayman]

Thank you both for the very interesting information @Hayman and @Foxylady.
I never really liked listening to the radio when I worked in an environment where it used to happen.
Not into chart music at all so it was a chore for me. Never settle for less them metal

How long ago was that? Sounds like Radio One or a commercial radio station. Even back in the 1970s the Performing Right Society 'inspectors' would visit shops and commercial premises, saying playing music in such places required a licence, even barbers' shops having a radio tuned to a music station. Musak was also seen as 'brainwashing' - an attempt to speed up production by playing fast-paced tunes. Since today gentle classical music is played in public places to deter petty crime, vandalism, loitering, etc, maybe the complaining factory workers were right.

 

[sadlerwells]

I've often photographed the bottle kiln when we've been past on the boat. Evocative photos, thank you.

 

[Roderick]

Very well done! I too have often passed through stoke on the canal, always intending to return and explore the old pot banks like this one..... but never got round to it. I sold my boat a couple of weeks ago and this is another thing I'll miss about it.

 

[Ferox]

How long ago was that? Sounds like Radio One or a commercial radio station. Even back in the 1970s the Performing Right Society 'inspectors' would visit shops and commercial premises, saying playing music in such places required a licence, even barbers' shops having a radio tuned to a music station. Musak was also seen as 'brainwashing' - an attempt to speed up production by playing fast-paced tunes. Since today gentle classical music is played in public places to deter petty crime, vandalism, loitering, etc, maybe the complaining factory workers were right.

It was back in the 90's mate. Radio One was the main station as I remember. The place was a fabrication/welding workshop.

 

[Ferox]

Thank You for the comments @sadlerwells and @Roderick

 

[Hayman]

It was back in the 90's mate. Radio One was the main station as I remember. The place was a fabrication/welding workshop.

And not the Third Programme/Radio Three with Beethoven sonatas?!! If it was a "fabrication/welding workshop, a bit of 'heavy metal' would not have been amiss.

 

[Ferox]

And not the Third Programme/Radio Three with Beethoven sonatas?!! If it was a "fabrication/welding workshop, a bit of 'heavy metal' would not have been amiss.

Your right mate. I should have said that at the time

 

[Douglas Mitchinson]

I worked there for 6 weeks between A levels and University. Must have been the mid-1960's. I worked in the new part on the extreme left of the photo. I packed coffee mugs, tea pots, and other bits and pieces. Pity, I never got to explore the rest of the site but I was there to work, and there was always stuff to pack.

 

[pustit]

Very well done! I too have often passed through stoke on the canal, always intending to return and explore the old pot banks like this one..... but never got round to it. I sold my boat a couple of weeks ago and this is another thing I'll miss about it.

The only times, ever, that I have been to Stoke have been on a narrowboat along the canal! Wish I had been around 50 or so years ago when so many more potteries were still standing. Not much left now, i'm afraid.